The 2018 Climate Change Performance Index singled out Ireland as the worst performing country in Europe for taking concrete action to tackle climate change. “You said when you became Taoiseach that fighting climate change would be your first priority,” Mr Lamberts said, addressing Mr Varadkar directly. “Yet it doesn’t really show.”

Climate Laggard

In his candid response, the Taoiseach acknowledged that Ireland is falling behind the rest of Europe and gave his commitment to taking greater action. “As far as I am concerned, we are a laggard. I am not proud of Ireland’s performance on climate change,” he said.

Mr Varadkar added that measures to help meet our 2030 emissions targets will be “central” to Ireland’s ten-year capital investment plan set to be published in the coming months.

“That includes things in transport, like electrifying our railways,” he said. “It’s about transitioning our public transport and our bus fleet to low emissions. It’s about electric cars, in particular, where we put in some incentives.

“There are lots of things that we intend to do so that we can meet those targets. And it’s something that I am very committed to, and certainly, my generation of politicians is very committed to.”

He added, however, that Mr Varadkar’s words must be “backed up by leadership” to ensure that the Government implements lasting policies to “drastically reduce” our emissions.

Oisín Coghlan, Director of Friends of the Earth, said that Taoiseach’s “honesty” on Ireland’s “dire” climate record” was a sign of progress, but echoed the call for “concrete action” now. He called on the Government to listen to the “common-sense proposals” put forward by the Citizens’ Assembly in November to help Ireland catch up with our EU partners and finally lose its unwelcome “climate laggard” moniker.

He urged the Taoiseach to support the Bill that would bring Ireland “on a par” with best practice from across Europe. The Bill proposes to ban disposable plastic plates, cups and other types of tableware by 2020, as well as bringing in a deposit and refund scheme for drinks containers.

In countries where a deposit system has been implemented, including the Netherlands, Sweden, and Finland, results have been positive with return rates reaching 80 to 95 per cent.